Quick Post About Hotel and Taxi Drivers

I'll be brief.

(1) It's sort of advisable to book hotels using sites like agoda.com. I was not able to book online because my laptop died on me while I was checking out my options yesterday. Typhoon Glenda brought down many trees in our area, specially in our backyard, and of course, damaged a few electricity lines -- so no power for almost two weeks now. I've decided I'll just go to the hotel and inquire about the affordable room I saw from agoda.com before my laptop's screen went black. Lo and behold for when I got there, the only available room for the day is worth P2300. Not convinced and refusing to be out of options, I went to the nearest Starbucks and charged my laptop. Look, I was able to find a cheaper room and it's a wayyy BETTER room than the ones they've offered me. I booked for 2 nights while I do my business in the city. I'll probably review my stay in the hotel through a future post.

Current Western Union Rates for Domestic Money Transfer In The Philippines

     Because of their current location in the US, my brother occasionally accepts money remittance from his co-workers. Just like what happened last week when they were in an isolated area and his colleague's family in the Philippines really needed the cash. He does not do this all the time, only when I have spare money in my wallet. I pay for it initially then he just pays me later in bulk (wayyy later if I may say) so we can save on the remittance charges. We split what's left of what his friends paid him, less of course the amount we spent on sending. We normally accept when his friends will send money to a BPI account or a BDO account (I can visit these banks readily and they're convenient) but since it was an emergency, we obliged to send via Western Union. 

     Of course I needed to know how much I will be paying for sending the money via Western Union so I Googled how much they charge for $300 (approximately P13,200 at that time). I don't know why it isn't readily posted on the Western Union website so I looked elsewhere. I found some info, yeah, but too bad, it was erroneous information. So imagine my surprise when I was asked to pay P540.00 to send P13,200.00 to somewhere in Quezon. Well anyway, for your reference, I took a photo of the poster displaying the current rates for sending money domestically (to and from anywhere in the Philippines) via Western Union.

Some Truth About ePinoyload.com

     Even before my dad's stroke last year, I spend approximately 60% of a year in my hometown. I love the quiet and the simplicity of life in the province, and except for the occasional "technology glitches", I have no complains being at home. When I say "technology glitches," I meant to say slow Internet connection or sometimes no signal at all, and yep -- not being able to find an e-loading station in the middle of the night when I desperately needed to reload my prepaid phone or Internet. That's why when Sam, my dad's therapist, mentioned an e-loading business opportunity from UPN (http://powerup.unlimitedpesonetwork.com), I said, why not? I get to earn a bit and then I can load myself anytime, anywhere. Such fun, right?

     I have no full knowledge how things work with UPN but I get that they've built their business platform around ePinoyload, because when I started encountering problems and he can no longer address my queries, Angelo (the guy who introduced Sam to the business) referred me to the ePinoyload website (http://epinoyload.com) and sir Jessie (the dealer from whom I am listed under) gave me a number of an ePinoyload staff who can accommodate my complains.